Friday, July 4, 2008

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!

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Happy Independence Day, everyone! If you were reading my blog last October, you know how much I love vintage holiday postcards. Fourth of July postcards are more expensive than some other holiday cards, like Easter or Thanksgiving cards. I personally own only the card shown directly below. In searching the Internet for Fourth of July postcards, I found a preponderance of cards featuring children and fireworks! It's also interesting to see how many girls are pictured. When I was a kid, firecrackers were pretty much a boy thing.

I have to laugh that all these kids are playing with (or walking through) fireworks, totally unsupervised. And some of those firecrackers are ginormous! The little boy in the sailor suit has a real arsenal!

My own experience with fireworks wasn't so pleasant. When I was about four, my mom and aunt took me to the fireworks display at the Divide County Fair. All I remember from that evening is huddling beside a car, trying to escape from the horrid noise. The noise still bothers me but I can force myself to sit still at public fireworks shows and not make a spectacle of myself.

My brothers saved their allowance for a year to buy firecrackers. They set a bunch off during the Fourth, to be sure, but they kept a bunch more in reserve to use the rest of the year. And of course, my mom was frantic with worry that they would shoot out an eye or lose a hand. As for me, I was content to have a box of sparklers. I loved to write my name with the sparkler wand and see it hang in the air for a few seconds.

Here in Bismarck, the Fourth is celebrated with a symphony performance (with rousing patriotic tunes) and a fireworks display on the Capitol grounds. We've gone a number of times and it is a fun evening. Across the river in Mandan, they do the Fourth up big, with a huge parade, a rodeo, fireworks, and Art in the Park. My sister and I are going to Art in the Park this afternoon, for all the delicious food as well as the crafts. Dan and I may go to the Capitol this evening, or, since we are so close, we may just sit on our deck and enjoy the music and the fireworks from a SAFE distance. Have a great one, everyone!~

Happy 4th of July to you and yours, dear Julie! I do hope you had a fabulous day filled with celebrations. Love all the vintage postcards:-) I remember those little firecrackers...my brothers were forever throwing them at me to scare me. Grrrrrrr...lol They are illegal here in Ontario now....those little ones. My favourites have always been the sparklers. On July 1st, our Canada Day, I was on my deck all alone with my sparklers writing my name! lol xoxo

Sharing these fabulous vintage cards was great Julie - hope your Fourth was a fun time. Our fireworks at the fairgrounds were postponed due to a thunderstorm - such a shame for the thousands of kids and their parents already on their blankets and waiting for darkness to fall. Tonite perhaps....but more storms expected. I watched the ones in DC - on HD they were fabulous!Happy weekend dear.

CELTIC WARRIOR WOMAN - MY ALTER EGO

Gracie and Mom

About Me

I'm a lady of a certain age, living with two dogs, Gracie, a German Shorthair Pointer, and my new baby, Holly, a Short-Haired Border Collie, in a 1929 stucco bungalow. I lost my husband of 38 1/2 years in 2013. I have a beautiful 33-year-old daughter who lives too far away! A former newspaper reporter, I still consider myself a writer, although I'm not employed as one. On the outside I may seem very ordinary but on the inside I think of myself as fey and whimsical, with mor than a touch of magic and mysticism. I think I see the world with rose-colored glasses. Don't worry - I know what's out there. Why do you think I put on those glasses?

STONEWYLDE SERIES OF BOOKS BY KIT BERRY

I ALWAYS KNEW I HAD ARISTOCRATIC BLOOD IN ME!

"GREEN-EYED LADY" by Sugarloaf (circa 1971)

Since I am a Green-Eyed Lady, I adopted this '70s song as my own. It always brings back memories of living in Littleton, CO in 1971:
"Green-eyed lady, windswept lady, rules the night, the waves, the sand/Green-eyed lady, ocean lady, child of nature, friend of man/ Green-eyed lady, passion's lady, dressed in love, she lives for life to be/Green-eyed lady, feels life I never see, setting sons and lonely lovers free/Green-eyed lady, lovely lady, strolling slowly towards the sun/Green-eyed lady, ocean lady, soothing every raging storm that comes."